


Sweetly Laced Poison

by CloakedStoryteller



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Assassination, Canonical Child Abuse, F/M, Fire Nation Politics (Avatar), Fire Nation Royal Family, Hot take I like the comics, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Iroh just wants his poor nephew to be ok, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Poisoning, Written before I read the comics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24911614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloakedStoryteller/pseuds/CloakedStoryteller
Summary: Ozai banished Ursa because if she could assassinate his father, she could assassinate him. Ozai should stop giving Ursa ideas...
Relationships: Ozai/Ursa (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 45





	Sweetly Laced Poison

**Author's Note:**

> Do I have another Work in Progress? Yes. Do I care? No. I'm too excited about this story to wait.

“What’s so hard to understand, Mother? Grandfather’s mad that Father tried to take Uncle Fatso’s claim to the throne and says Father has to kill Zuzu as punishment. I told him, but Zuzu’s a dumdum and doesn’t believe me.”

Ursa was smacked between the eyes by her own daughter’s gleeful delight in her brother’s impending doom. Any other child, even the other one raised alongside Azula, would have been horrified to find out that their Father planned to murder their sibling, but not Azula. Azula was pleased. 

“You’re a monster.” The daughter Ursa had always been concerned about but had never feared for changed expressions for a moment, from unnaturally happy to something Ursa had never seen on Azula’s young face. Then, before Ursa could parse its meaning, Azula’s happy smile was back. 

For a moment, Ursa regretted her harsh words, but she did not have the time to take them back. Ozai would not hesitate to kill their eldest child, and Ursa could not hesitate to intervene. Leaving Azula with a peculiar blank smile, Ursa made her way to the marriage bed she had not shared with Ozai for years, since his never-abating criticism of Zuko had begun. As Ursa had hoped, Ozai had not left the room, too early in the night for the dark deeds the prince plotted. 

Ursa’s blood ran cold as she saw the long, straight knife, adorned with a single ruby, sitting on the dressing table. It was clean, innocuous, and yet if Ozai and Azulon had their way it would be stained with the blood of her baby in hours. 

“Wife?” Ozai gazed at her, confusion and suspicion warring in his eyes. He did not know why Ursa had come to their room after years of living in her own quarters, but the only reason he could fathom was his dark plot. 

“I know, Ozai.”

“Know, what, Ursa?” Ozai would not admit to anything he did not have to. Not yet.

“Do not treat me like a fool, husband. I know that Azulon has ordered you to kill our son.” 

Ozai’s eyes darted to the dagger on his desk, then met Ursa’s eyes again. “Interesting.”

“You and your father were not careful enough. Azula overheard everything, then taunted Zuko with it.”

A note of alarm entered Ozai’s eyes. “Ah. And the boy?”

“The boy,” Ursa pronounced with all the anger she held, “believes the best of his father, as all good sons do.”

“Hmm.”

“You intend to kill him. Your heir, our firstborn, my son.”

Ozai looked at his wife calculatingly. “It is what must be done.”

“But you still won’t be Fire Lord.”

Ozai’s head snapped up. “What?”

“Azulon has demanded that you kill Zuko as penance for trying to usurp Iroh, but that doesn’t guarantee you’ll be named Crown Prince. It might just buy you Azulon’s forgiveness and nothing more. Furthermore, even if you become Crown Prince, Azulon is old but healthy. He could last years more. Years for Iroh to recover his strength, years for you to fall back out of Azulon’s favor. Murdering Zuko might get you everything you want, but it could also lose you everything.” Ursa spoke with conviction, knowing any crack would be something Ozai would use. She knew that Ozai would take her seriously because she spoke the truth, and despite her husband’s cruelty and madness he was no fool. 

Ozai eyed Ursa. “What do you offer in return? I am willing to gamble with Zuko’s life, but you are not. What will you give me as a better plan?”

Ursa took a deep breath. This was the point of no return. “I offer a forgery of Azulon’s will to declare you his heir and a poison in his nightly wine. It would look clean, the old man changing his will after Iroh’s fall and quietly dying of a heart attack in the dead of night. It couldn’t be traced to you, and with the will you are guaranteed to be Fire Lord. All I ask in return is that Zuko lives.”

Ozai wore the same pleased look a snake wore when it found baby mice to eat. The same look, now that Ursa’s eyes were open, that Azula wore when gloating over the danger her brother was in. 

\---

Hours later, with the will in Ozai’s hands, The illegally made Crown Prince and his wife watched from the shadows as his father began seizing, throat closing and choking before he would call for help. Within minutes, the great Fire Lord Azulon was dead and in hours Ozai would be Fire Lord. 

Ozai and Ursa slipped into the palace’s secret passages, hand-in-hand as if they were newly engaged and pretending to love each other for the first time. Before they could reach the bed that once was theirs, Ozai halted their flight by stopping with his hand still on Ursa’s wrist.

Turning to his deadly wife, Ozai smiled beatifically. “Ursa, you’ve given me all I’ve ever wanted. And yet-” here Ozai paused, smile slipping to a smirk, “and yet, all it would take for this game of pai sho to be lost would be for something to be traced back to you.” Ozai cupped Ursa’s face, in the way he one day would her son. “And I know you now better than I have in our years of marriage, Ursa. You’re a treacherous snake when it suits you, and you have a penchant for assassinating Fire Lords. And I can’t have that. You will have left the palace to disappear forever by morning, or I will have to arrested for Azulon’s murder and executed, and the moment I get the opportunity your precious son will follow you.”

Ursa’s eyes burned bright with fury. “You dare threaten-”

“Oh no, Ursa, we both know I do not threaten. I’ve wanted the useless boy dead for years, and your actions have bought him today, but your disappearance will buy the rest of his life.”

Ursa’s mind churned, turning over the possibilities in her mind. She could not take her husband in direct confrontation, and she did not have the time to plan his demise before he executed her. She had made her husband too powerful, and not only was she now out of leverage, he had leverage on her. Fury burning bright in her eyes, Ursa stared Ozai down. “Fine. I leave, and Zuko’s life is saved. But mark me, Ozai, if he dies, you will feel my wrath.”

\---

After Ursa held her beloved son one last time and asked him to stay himself, she stole to the kitchens. There was a supply of alcohol that was reserved for the Fire Lord. Pulling a vial out of her hand, Ursa uncorked the bottle of sake reserved for the Fire Lord on special occasions and dropped five drops inside. Five tiny drops, but so much damage. In a few days, on the day of Azulon’s funeral and Ozai’s crowning, Ozai would drink this sake in celebration. He would toast her poisoning and at the same time, his death.

But Ozai’s death would not be quick and easy like Azulon’s. He had admitted to wanting her Zuko dead for years, to scheming and wishing for her sweet son to die. Ozai would pay for it, and he would know the cause, and by his own hand she would be far away. 

Five drops for her son’s life, and perhaps her daughter’s sanity.

**Author's Note:**

> It's a bit short, but this chapter is basically a prologue.
> 
> I have a Tumblr! Come talk to me @CloakedStoryteller!


End file.
